little ladies ...

For primary, the girls had to fill a spotlight form. While I was making dinner Mike and the girls filled out their forms. Mike came in to show me their forms, in particular the question pertaining to their hero. They both had the same hero. I was so touched.

(Here are their answers. I cropped most the form) Emerson's is the first and Rileigh's is the second.)

I hope they always feel this way. I seriously sometimes worry though. I am a pretty strict Mom. Emerson was doing impressions of Mike and me a little while ago. When she imitated me her voice went into a falsetto and she said "Remember, I always want you to be little ladies. That is most important." Mike just laughed. I am ALWAYS reminding the girls to be "little ladies".

Parenting is such a fine line. I watch parents who are too lenient with rowdy children and I just cringe. But then I watch parents who are too strict (although there seems to be few of them) and I cringe.

You only get one chance to do this. I have lately been asking parents of youth (parents of young women in particular) that I admire for parenting tips. All their daughters are polite, kind, not boy crazy (that is huge for me, you can like boys but do let it become an obsession), and intelligent. The type of girls that excel in many areas. Their parents are always happy to share, but each has a different method. I have noticed, though, two strong reoccurring themes: the youth that I admired most had parents who set very strong limits. And the young women I admire most play sports. I think studies may be correct about the correlation between sports and teen girls' self-esteem.

So if anyone has any great parenting books to recommend I would love some. I really want to get mothering right. You cannot go back and change it if you don't.